


If Every Porkchop Were Perfect....

by nocturneequuis



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 08:01:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23968024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturneequuis/pseuds/nocturneequuis
Summary: No one knows the responsibilities of leadership like Rose does. Not even Greg. But he does know that no one is really flawless, and that's perfectly okay.
Relationships: Rose Quartz/Greg Universe
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	If Every Porkchop Were Perfect....

It was a bright balmy morning in Beach City. Puffy clouds scudded across a clear blue sky and the wind came right off the ocean, stirring salt and adventure into the air. Greg lifted his head and took a deep breath, the breeze tickling his bangs across his forehead. On a day like this, he couldn’t think of a better thing to do than to go down to the beach and wait for a certain pink haired Goddess to come sailing back into his life.

All he had to do was to root around in the laundry for something relatively clean, brush his hair, brush his teeth just in case—spend a good half an hour trying to find a left flipflop and then finally deciding to go barefoot.

“Can’t keep a good lady waiting,” he told himself. He hooked his guitar to a cool new beaded strap he’d found at the rummage sale the other day and flopped out of the van. The asphalt here was rough under his feet and he squinched his toes against it thoughtfully, thinking of just how much asphalt he’d have to cross, not to mention the prickly weeds if he decided to take the shortcut and the possibility of those little sand colored crabs on the beach that liked to come out in the mornings and pinch unwary toes.

“Ehh. What’s the worst that could happen?” That in mind he started off, humming to himself. The roughness of the asphalt made him walk gingerly, but he was in no hurry. The best and worst part of dating Rose was waiting for Rose. He never knew when she might be back or what she might have done and seen. It was always exciting. Every time something new. And this time, he had something new for her. He pulled his guitar around to his front to practice as he walked.

“You know, you!

Have the perfect kind of smile!

I could watch your face for miles!

Even as the tide rolls in.

You know, you!

Have such a perfect grace!

While I fall flat on my face!

You just dance around me laughing.

I’m lucky to have you and I

Don’t know what you see In me

But with me and so perfectly you

Maybe we can …make a perfect…two?” He stopped and thought about that. Okay so maybe the lyrics needed a _little_ work.

A car horn blared in his ear making him jump a mile.

“Get out of the road!” a man growled and Greg realized he’d stopped right in the middle of a cross-walk.

“Woah! Sorry, sorry!” He dashed to the other side, wincing as he caught a pebble in his foot and limped to the not prickly grass to get it out.

“You know, one of these days you’re going to have to learn to take your own advice.” He felt better once the pebble was free and continued his much more spatially aware stroll to the beach.

The awareness lasted until he topped a sand dune and spied her, pink haired goddess standing on the shore, wind in her hair.

“Rose!” He hurried toward her, yelping as his foot caught in an unexpected dip in the sand and he was sent tumbling head over guitar onto the sand.

“Oh no!” There was a laugh in Rose’s voice. “Are you alright, Greg?” Her shadow fell over him and he opened his eyes to see her beautiful face, caught in a halo of pink backlit by the sun.

“Hey, babe.” He fingergunned her. “Come here often?”

She smiled faintly. “Every day.” And offered her hand. He took it and was hauled to his feet with amazing strength that always gave him the shivers. She was incredible. Absolutely perfect.

Speaking of which.

“Oh gosh, my guitar!” He pulled it around again, shaking out the sand and a crab, then gave it a quick once over.

“Is it okay?” asked Rose.

“Yes. Whew!” He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I guess there’s a reason why they tell you to stay off the dunes.”

“I guess there is.” She gave him another smile and then turned to the sea once more, but her hand remained on the back of his shoulder. Something was wrong. Rose was always kind of far away and sad, he was noticing, even when she was happy. Only this time the sadness was a little closer to the surface.

“How did the mission go?” he hazarded, knowing she’d only tell him so much. “Anything happen?”

“ _So_ much happened,” Rose said. “We were completely overwhelmed. I thought we could handle it but we really couldn’t and Pearl—ah Pearlll…” She raised both hands, palms up, fingers curled in the universal gesture of halfway to throttling someone. “—She just, threw herself right in the way, just as always. It’s so frustrating. I can handle far more than she can. If Garnet hadn’t been so quick on her feet she might have been damaged.”

“Wow…” Greg tried to take all this in. Rose had never told him so much before, or so emphatically. It must have really hit her hard. He slipped his arm around her waist and she sighed, leaning into him. “It sounds like you had a rough time.”

“It wasn’t the worst… But I made a mistake…” She rubbed her arm. “A big, stupid mistake. I just wanted to be over and done with. Garnet suggested we should take our time, Pearl said we should be careful but I was neither. I thought it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Weell everyone makes mistakes sometimes.” He squeezed her waist. “Look at me? I’m practically the mistake master!”

She did look at him, fondness in her eyes that made his heart jump up and do the watusi.

“That’s what makes you adorable,” she said. He wanted to protest his adorableness but then got a soft kiss and decided some adorability was alright. Once more back to the sea and the warmth slowly faded from her. She sighed and her shoulders sagged.

“It’s different for you. For you humans. You’re allowed to grow and change and make mistakes.”

“Pearl and Garnet make mistakes too.” The less said about the first probably the better. “And Amethyst does. That’s part of learning, isn’t it?”

“It’s different for them too.” Her voice was even softer at this. A low murmur almost as if she didn’t want him to hear. He wanted to ask why. Why Rose thought it was so different for her. Was it because she was a leader? Or some class of gem he didn’t know about? Even if she was…

“No one’s perfect.”

“Some are.” Another smile, the saddest one he’d ever seen from her. “Some gems are meant to be absolutely flawless. That’s how they’re made. That’s who they’re supposed to be. Everyone can trust them and what they say because they don’t make mistakes.”

“I bet they do.”

“ _They_ don’t.”

The emphasis caught him. Did she mean to say she was one of those gems? Or was she just arguing? It was hard to tell really. Whatever the case it definitely sounded like she wanted to _be_ like them anyway.

“I don’t want to be flawless,” Rose continued as if she’d heard his thought. “I don’t—A part of me, selfishly, wants to learn and change and grow just like humans. I’m tired of being thought of as someone who always knows what they’re doing. Someone always in charge. But that’s good, right? I mean… being flawless—being _perfect_ , is what you should strive for, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” Another little squeeze and he wished he could do more. “But you know what they say, if every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hotdogs.”

She blinked at him.

“What?”

“You know…uh… porkchops… Hotdogs… Unless you don’t like hotdogs I guess.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’ve never had a hot dog.”

“Whaaat?! Never had a hotdog?!” What kind of travesty was that? An easily remedied one, that’s what it was. He would be her knight in shining jeans as he got her one of the tastiest treat this side of Beach City. “Wait right here. I’ll be right back!”

“Um…Okay…”

He started across the sand, then came trotting back:

“Here, watch this. And by that I mean hold onto it so it doesn’t get stolen or drift away or get stolen by crabs or something.” He gave her his guitar and then hurried off again, running as fast as he could—then slowing to a more sane jog, up to the boardwalk.

Most of the hotdog vendors were closed this time of the morning, but Fryman was always open early. Today was no exception and the man himself was leaning on the windowsill, looking bored. He perked up as Greg came closer.

“Hey, Universe, what can I get you.”

“Two hotdogs please. The classic combo.” Mustard to start off with and then, if Rose decided she liked it, they’d move on to the fancy stuff like ketchup.

Though it probably wasn’t more than ten minutes, it felt like forever as Fryman got the dogs together. It didn’t help that the boardwalk was rough on his bare, and now aching, feet, and any second he was sure he’d get a splinter.

“You know, I’ve been thinking of moving over to an emphasis on fries. Just fries,” said Fryman, lying the dogs laconically on the counter as Greg frantically dug around in his pockets for money. He found a crumpled five dollar bill that had only been washed once and shoved it over.

“It’s kind of in the name,” the man continued, taking the money. “What do you think?”

Hotdogs now, introspection later, Greg wanted to say. Instead he called over his shoulder:

“Sounds good, keep the change!” And then he was jogging back the way he had come, hands full of hot dogs and trying to avoid rough patches. By the time he got back to the beach, he was winded. Rose was standing right where he left her, in the same pose even, holding the guitar. She blinked at him curiously.

“Are you alright?” she said.

“Yeah! Whew… One sec…” He breathed in and out a few times until he was sure his heart wasn’t going to fall out of his throat, then straightened with a grin.

“Here uh… I’ll take that…” He gestured at the guitar. “You take this. But don’t eat it yet.”

The awkward exchange was completed and he took a moment to settle the instrument against his back before moving to stand in front of her wearing a serious expression.

“You know about porkchops right?”

“Yes…”

Good one hurdle out of the way. “Well they don’t always come out perfect. Sometimes the chop is too small or there are extra bits and they’ve got unporkchopable meat lying around.” Which wasn’t entirely accurate, but going for a metaphor here. “So what they do is take the pork and mix it up with other pork mistakes, and if you’re lucky, other meat as well and you have—” He thrust his food upward. “A hotdog. Da na na naaaa.” He wiggled his fingers over it like making magic.

“Ooooh.”Rose applauded appreciatively while still holding the hotdog, her fingers instead hitting the heel of her hand. “So this is a meat of mistakes…”

“Yeah, exactly! That’s it. All these little mistakes you can put together into something new. Uh, something you learned! Because learning is made up from mistakes. And mistakes can be delicious.” Okay so he was stretching the metaphor a bit so—“Try it! If. You. Dare.”

“I accept your challenge!” She raised her hot dog like a drinking glass and he tapped the cardboard of his holder against hers. They took bites at the same time and he felt a rush of fondess at the smear of mustard on her lip and the stars that sparked in her eyes.

“Greeeeg!” she gasped after she’d swallowed. “It’s amaazinng! How have I never heard of these before?” She ate the whole thing and his too when he shyly offered it to her before licking the mustard off her fingers. He loved a woman with an appetite.

“We should get more,” she said with a grin.

“Uh sure! I have more change in the van but—you get it right? What I’m trying to say here?”

She smiled and it seemed more real this time.

“Yes. I understand.”

“Sooo maybe you can tell the others too. I mean the metaphor and tell them who you are and all of that.”

“Mm…” She looked back at the temple, another salt scented breeze stirring hair and dress. “I could… But I think… I think they _need_ me to be a porkchop. We’re all alone here. Just the four of us now. Against—well, things.” She looked back at him. “It feels better to have someone you can rely on completely, doesn’t it?”

He saw where she was coming from. He wished he could change her mind. He wished he could make things easier on her. But he had no idea what she was facing, and even if she wasn’t an alien, her lifestyle was…well…alien to him. Still, maybe…

“You can… be a hotdog with me?”

Her face lit up like a beacon and she leaned down to rest her forehead against his.

“Nothing would make me happier...”

He wrapped his arms around her neck and hers settled about his waist and for a while he just remained in her cool embrace, feeling the tickle of hair against the backs of his hands. For just a moment, even though they were completely different in all the ways that counted and even some that didn’t, it felt like they stood as one. A single brave hotdog against the wide wide world…

…with nowhere else they’d rather be. 


End file.
